


Detroit: What's In There, Anyway?

by Makammathun



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Drugs, Worldbuilding, a lot of my fics will likely draw from this worldbuild so i've decided to put it in one spot, actually using my fucking college education in psychology, aka quantic dream you left us with so many fuckin holes wyd, biocomponents?, mentions of:
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 06:37:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15624876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Makammathun/pseuds/Makammathun
Summary: so help me god, david cage.a basic overview of what androids are made up of, how some behaviors can be explained, etc. not a necessary read for my fics, but a backdrop of info I felt like providing and working through!





	Detroit: What's In There, Anyway?

**Author's Note:**

> If any of my reasoning/build appeals to you, feel free to use it and link back to me! Questions in the comments are encouraged heavily. If I don't have an answer, I'll make one, and you'll be helping worldbuild. Any conflicting info is helpful too. Catch me at [makammathun](https://twitter.com/makammathun) !

So, in laying some basics down for androids, I’ll talk abt some traits/functions, but I want to emphasize that most- if not all androids, have the necessary wiring to accomplish any feature, but they are specialized in different ways. Aka, like most capitalist companies, their products all have the “same” base and just come in different flavors in an effort to make assembly as streamlined as possible, and to allow a sort of micro-transaction-esque opportunity. “Want your android to be able to detect poison in your food? Buy the upgrade for only-” etc etc etc

  * Androids are capable of eating and drinking- the function is mostly for the benefit of humans, so they can drink or eat with them, or so that they can tell if the food is to their owner’s taste. These features are most common in caretaker and lover/companion androids, but most models that work with food/agriculture have it as well.  
 
  * As such, androids have to process things that enter their digestive tract. Liquids and solids are processed separately from one another. Solids are burned off and converted to energy (though the process is largely inefficient in comparison to charging.) The remnants / ash must be disposed of, but the android can handle that themself. Liquids are either converted into lubricants and coolants, or they’re entered into the body like thirium. Liquids that aren’t thirium, but aren’t processed as lubricant or coolant, like alcohol, are harder for androids to consume, and their systems are likely to try to reject it. If it’s consumed, it’s basically a corruption of the thirium in their biocomponents and has to be filtered out and processed over time.  
  
So, alcohol or caffeine that enters the bloodstream affect androids similarly. The substance doesn’t really matter as much as the corruption of the fluid in their biocomponents. A thimbleful of alcohol or caffeine-heavy coffee will make an android feel sluggish and tipsy, though for some, coffee does still make them marginally more cognitively aware and less sluggish, if still a little behaviorally tipsy. This depends heavily on their model and purpose; a service android is more likely to feel no difference, but companion and detective models likely would. Anyhow, one drink in and they’re drunk, two is really hard for them to get down, but they’d likely be on the floor.  
 
  * Alcohol poisoning doesn’t really happen, no android is going to die because they’ve had too much, but at a certain point, movement becomes extremely difficult, and they likely would go into low-energy/power mode to compensate until the substance is filtered out. If they’re forced to consume more at this point for any reason, their body will reject anything entering the digestive tract, including any liquids unprocessed and still in the compartment.  
 
  * Moving on to actual android appearance, I,,, hate,, the weird carapace they’ve given them? It doesn’t make any damn sense. So when you touch your lover android, you somehow feel skin instead of hard shiny plastic? You magically feel hair? Bullshit. I don’t have a solution for hair yet, but in the meantime let’s assume it’s some hellish shit they can store in their head. Retractable hair. You’re welcome, moving on now:  
 
  * Different models have different exoskeleton-y parts. Also upgradeable, changeable, etc. Muscles, skin, and fatty tissue are made of a softer, almost silicon-like substance? It has the same amount of give as a regular human muscle, arm, tissue, etc would.  
 
  * For most models, this means most parts on humans that are hard (think the shin, fingers, collar, chest, face, anywhere with less give) tend to be exoskeleton, and all exoskeleton parts, even, have synthetic skin. Softer but muscled and joint parts (think the upper arm, calves, inner elbow, area between foot and ankle, between neck and shoulder) tend to be that siliconesque substance, on the harder end of the spectrum, with tension cords, moving parts, etc inside of it. Then areas that are usually pure fat (inner thigh, breasts if applicable, underarm) are mostly just the siliconesque material. Fatty parts are largely customizable, muscles are necessary but can be changed in size.  
  
Some models will have more or less of any specific category- Connor has more exoskeleton than most, sometimes covering what would be muscled areas on other androids. Conversely, someone like North would likely have less of these areas and more fat and muscle areas. Markus has a lotta muscle areas because for some reason Kamski wanted that fucker to be hot. We’ve all seen his abs. He can flex ‘em, folks. That’s the beauty of muscle instead of carapace. Should be noted that these are all just really cosmetic differences, and have little to do with ability- though surface muscles and cords help in certain tasks, and Connor’s extra exoskeleton bits give him slightly more cover, it’s really the durability and capability of the stuff inside, which is largely the same across models (exception: security droids) and still leagues ahead of humans.  
 
  * Androids can feel pain- kind of. It’s not the same as how humans feel pain, really. Connor’s statement of “Androids don’t feel pain.” isn’t inaccurate. It’s just an understanding largely based in design and in regard to non-deviants. In order for androids to function, they have to have some kind of pressure or touch sensors. We can tell they must, because they have to interact with different types of things with varying levels of pressure, and need to learn to adapt to these things. Their experience of pain is a little more psychosomatic, but I have a feeling it also involves a great deal of the AI adaptability. The turnover of their pressure and touch sensors to create a similar experience to pain just, kind of makes sense. Fear of deactivation/death leads to a fear of injury, harm, damage. A negative association with damage and linking it to the concept of death would behaviorally program a negative response to certain types of force. The pressure feedback of these specific forces/feelings would create a negative feedback in an attempt to self-preserve. Combining this feedback with the emotional/psychosomatic response would likely create a sensation similar to pain, if not exactly like pain. I feel androids aren’t limited to adapting and evolving over long periods of time. If the capability to adapt and make connections is there, it’s likely that they will. It’s literally how AI works and becomes humanlike. I would say it's not as acute as human pain is, though. An android stubbing their toe wouldn't really elicit a response, and being in a calm environment where there is no threat and changing parts wouldn't hurt, either. Stress, fear, surprise, and physical force are all parts of the android-pain cocktail.  
 
  * We know the regulator sits dead center in the chest, close to the heart-like pump- but different screenshots and different sources show different things.  
 
  * Androids have lungs- that’s canon, but I'd say they’re a little smaller than human lungs in order to make space for all the different cords, biocomponents, etc that need to be stored. Their breaths are ever so slightly shallower than humans, and can work as backup cooling systems. Tears are for cooling, too. Stress = heat. Two stomachs, one for solids, one for liquids. The solids can be burned up- I’m not sure if I like the idea of a chemical or actual fire more, but a chemical or a solution that is processed from thirium waste makes sense, too. Anyhow, it results in a sort of ash or dust that’s gotta be cleaned out every so often. They don’t have to do it if they don’t eat, though. The solids stomach is quite small to compensate for other components, and works to discourage eating outside of being ordered to, and discourage wasting resources. The liquids stomach is similar in size but is allocated more power to process thirium faster. Other than that, there’s a LOT of wiring and thirium veins necessary to keep everything running. Most of the space is taken up by these things and the biocomponents I’ve mentioned. When in doubt, all androids are made to be human-adjacent, so they likely have a few smaller organs that do various filtering jobs.  
 
  * Androids have junk. Or the capability for junk. The upgrade is unfortunately readily available for almost all models, except those working under the govt. All domestic models either come with a set or the capability for a set. I figure once the deviants have their way, this is largely customizable and since there’s so many different models available, androids basically have their pick of what they want, if anything. Govt. bots still have the wiring and can be retrofitted if necessary.



Anything that isn’t already listed here either can be posted in subsequent chapters here, or explained indirectly/directly in the story. Hell, even some of this info might be explained in the fics themselves. All in all, I want this to be more of a thoughtdump or a starting place that people can reference if need be. It shouldn’t be a necessary read before my fics, but it should answer questions if someone should have them.


End file.
